Compact, lower-power-consumption wavelength tunable laser fabricated with silicon photonic-wire waveguide micro-ring resonators.

A wavelength tunable laser with an SOA and external double micro-ring resonator, which is fabricated with silicon photonic-wire waveguides, is demonstrated. To date, it is the first wavelength tunable laser fabricated with silicon photonic technology. The device is ultra compact, and its external resonator footprint is 700 x 450 microm, which is about 1/25 that of conventional tunable lasers fabricated with SiON waveguides. The silicon resonator shows a wide tuning range covering the C or L bands for DWDM optical communication. We obtained a maximum tuning span of 38 nm at a tuning power consumption of 26 mW, which is about 1/8 that of SiON-type resonators.